What it's like at Maze in a Patient's Words

[Heather34]

Hi all. In an excellent article in which she describes what it was like for her to have severe vaginismus, a patient also describes what it is like at Maze Women’s Sexual Health and how they help you to relax. She writes:

“What was the environment like at the clinic, and what did the doctors do to help you relax?
“It was wonderful. The last time I was there, I brought the receptionist flowers because she was the first face that I saw, and if she had not been welcoming and kind, I probably would have run. And I told her that. At the clinic, it was good having the combination of the nurse, who is very clinical, and a social worker.

The nurse would talk you through it, tell you how small it is, hold your hand and offer encouragement but also be very firm at the same time. She has to be because she’s getting you to do something that every ounce of your body is telling you not to. She has to convince you that you are strong enough to go ahead and do it. So it’s that combination of empathy and firm encouragement that was really helpful. After the first time, I was joking with the nurse that everyone wants to get jacked and buff, how come I’m most ripped in muscles that I can’t even see?”

[Heather34]

Hi all. In a recent June 8, 2016 article, another treated patient at Maze Women’s Sexual Health described her experience of overcoming vaginismus:

http://www.cosmopolitan.com/health-fitness/news/a59602/vaginismus-overcoming-painful-sex/

Excerpts include:

“”It was really great to hear,” Magruder says of her finally accurate diagnosis, which only happened a couple months ago. “It’s been extremely awesome and empowering for me to go through treatment because a lot of it is doing it yourself at home.”

Her doctor gave her a series of eight dilators ranging in width from a finger to the size of an average penis. For ten minutes every day, Magruder lies on her bed at home, plays some relaxing music, and inserts one of the dilators to get her vagina comfortable with penetration.

“Once you conquer one dilator and can put it in without pain, you go on to next size up,” she says. Every week or so, she graduates to the next size. Right now, she is on the second-to-largest size and is almost finished with her treatment.

“It can be an emotional process,” she admits. “Vaginismus is a mental and physical reaction — it’s completely involuntary; your muscles are reacting in the same way as if something is coming toward your eye and you blink. Once you’ve made the connection [not to expect] pain, that’s what really breaks the spell.”

Since her diagnosis and successful treatment experience so far, Magruder has been on a mission to raise awareness about the condition.

“The more people know about it, the more willing people will be to get treatment. It shouldn’t be a shameful thing,” she says. “It’s an isolating condition to have and I want to prevent that in as many other people as possible.””